A 28-year-old repeat offender, who attacked another woman only 2 days earlier, stabbed a beloved 71-year-old US postal worker to death after she left her night shift. She was just a few doors away from reaching her home.
Repeat offender stabs beloved postal worker to death as she walks home from night shift
Dilma Franks-Spruill, a 71-year-old postal worker, left her night shift after sorting mail at a post office and distribution center in West Oakland, California, and was walking home as she usually does.
The 71-year-old had worked at the US Postal Service for eighteen years, her son Miles Spruill said.
Dilma was just doors away from her home when she was attacked. She was stabbed multiple times and died at the scene, according to her family and local reports, Yahoo reported.
“Three houses away,” Miles Spruill said. “She was almost home, but she’s not coming home.”
“[The US post office organization is] deeply saddened at the loss of our employee,” the USPS said in a statement. “We lost a member of our postal family. Dilma beamed with energy, joy and brought light to all who had the pleasure to know and work alongside her. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and her co-workers at this time.”
Suspect had stabbed another woman just two days earlier, long history of attacks on elderly women
Shortly after the vicious attack on Dilma Franks-Spruill, police identified and arrested 28-year-old Wilbert Winchester in the early hours, MSN reported.
Winchester has a lengthy history of attacking women in public. Only two days earlier, he was accused of stabbing a 59-year-old woman on a bus in Oakland. Police have not determined a motive for either attack.
Winchester is also the suspect in several other similar attacks, which include those using a box cutter and a metal pole, all occurring in the same area.
In 2017, Winchester kicked a 73-year-old woman in the head on a train, which resulted in her hospitalization. In 2018, he agreed to a plea bargain on charges of assault and was sentenced to three years in prison with a year’s credit for time served. He was released in 2020.
He has now been charged with first-degree murder by Alameda County prosecutors. However, Winchester has said he is innocent of Franks-Spruill’s murder, according to a statement by the Oakland Police Department, the Daily Mail reported.
Winchester’s mother said her son was diagnosed as a bipolar schizophrenic, who often does not take his medication and had recently started living on the streets. He has been in and out of jail since he turned 18, she added.
